Is this an early use of the slang "cool"?
March 20th, 2009
Here’s a passage from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart, published in 1906. I’ve included some context but the main thing I’m interested in is the appearance of the word “cool” in the second paragraph.
“Nonsense,” he said. “Bring yourself. The lady that keeps my boarding-house is calling to me to insist. You remember Dorothy, don’t you, Dorothy Browne? She says unless you have lost your figure you can wear my clothes all right. All you need here is a bathing suit for daytime and a dinner coat for evening.”
“It sounds cool,” I temporized. “If you are sure I won’t put you out—very well, Sam, since you and your wife are good enough. I have a couple of days free. Give my love to Dorothy until I can do it myself.”
I can’t see what “cool” means in the second paragraph, other than “cool” in the slang sense that we use it. My understanding is that “cool” in that sense started, or at least came into common usage, during or after World War II. In any case, 1906 seems insanely early for it.
But what else could it mean in the quotation above? The wardrobe described in the first paragraph doesn’t suggest a particularly cool climate. Is there some other nuance of the word I’m not getting?
I shall leave comments open on this one, at least until the spam gets intolerable.
8 Responses to “Is this an early use of the slang "cool"?”
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March 20th, 2009 at 10:59 PM
For what it’s worth: “Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang says that it was late 19th-century US Black slang for ‘good, fine, pleasing’, and claims that there is a quotation from 1884 in the Dictionary of American Regional English.”
—http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question22399.html
March 21st, 2009 at 09:20 AM
Thought I’ve long lost my OED account, a quick search still yielded this:
http://www.bl.uk/learning/resources/oed/50049434(2).htm
It seems to me that 4b is probably the best fit, which, if taken from 4a, has been around since Beowulf: “not heated by passion or emotion; unexcited, dispassionate; deliberate, not hasty; undisturbed, calm”. (4d and 4e are the modern sense, which really aren’t that far from the others, except that the idea of approval slowly slinks into the semantics.)
March 21st, 2009 at 05:28 PM
Looking at my OS X dictionary (which is derived from the New Oxford American Dictionary), there’s “fashionably impressive” cool, “free from anxiety” cool, and “restrained and relaxed” (in the context of Jazz) cool (among others). I can convince myself that in the context you provide it’s any one of those (if we use the Jazz form loosely). Which do you think it is?
I sent an email to Erin McKean, who’s the editor of the New Oxford American Dictionary, (and whom I don’t know personally) letting her know of your post. Maybe she’ll respond.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:19 PM
At first glance, I agree. But looking closer, the speaker is stalling. The use of temporized (avoid decision making) and the dash between ”... you out” and ” very well..” makes me think that “cool” refers to the clothing and how warm or cool the clothing is.
But if this part was takened out: “if you are sure I won’t put you out-well,”. It would mean cool in the slang since.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Googling for “history of the word cool” turned up the link below, which suggests that this sense of “cool” may have come into use around the end of the 19th century. See the discussion that begins around the end of the answer’s 2nd paragraph and continues through the 3rd paragraph.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-coo1.htm
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 AM
David, I submitted this to the email list of the American Dialect Society with some thoughts and to solicit other opinions:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0903D&L=ADS-L&P=R2&I=-3
My main comment:
I suspect this is more likely to fall under the sense defined by Jon Lighter as “insolent, impudent, unabashed; daring,” which HDAS dates to 1825 (and which roughly corresponds in OED to cool adj. sense 2d, dated to 1723 in the March 2009 draft revision), rather than under the sense “superlative, exciting, enjoyable; satisfactory, acceptable,” which seems to be the sense that Black believes it falls under, dated to 1933 by both HDAS (sense 3a) and OED (senses 8b and 8c).
A response from Douglas Wilson:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0903D&L=ADS-L&P=R279&I=-3
March 23rd, 2009 at 04:08 PM
I got answer for you from Grant Barret from http://waywordradio.org
@arisbartee @wayword Yes, but not in the way Black thinks: http://tinyurl.com/c58av4 ; http://tinyurl.com/cxlwx5
March 23rd, 2009 at 09:16 PM
Thanks for the responses, everyone. I think Doug Wilson may well be right (see the link to his response, in Grant’s comment above). He suggests that it is, indeed, about the temperature, because the person is saying that you only need a bathing suit and a dinner jacket. So it would be in the sense of “That sounds like you’d get cold.”
On the other hand… I can’t help feeling that “It sounds cool” isn’t the best way to convey that thought. “It sounds cool” sounds more like “It sounds like a cold climate”, which is the opposite of what’s being suggested. So I still find it a bit puzzling. It certainly grabbed my attention when I was reading the book!